


YAHF: The Traveler

by Dunuelos



Series: Harry Potter, Lone Traveler [66]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Harry is a god, YAHF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-17
Updated: 2019-08-17
Packaged: 2020-09-06 01:15:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20282977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dunuelos/pseuds/Dunuelos
Summary: Xander dresses as a "Cooler Harry Potter" because he could only afford a fake wand.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> "The Lone Traveler: Originally a Mortal Human Wizard and dimensional traveler, this being ascended to Godhood as a reward for services to the Creator. Very often arrives and leaves using a spectacular aura of blue light. His Divine name is Marek Ilumian, Fury of the Light, a Minor God of Knowledge and Travel and Patron God of Free Will. His appearance normally associated with preventing apocalypses or helping to ensure Free Will can be exercised by mortals. All assistance should be rendered when he appears. Does have a mischievous streak, especially when accompanied by a Goddess from another dimension who appears as a small innocent girl."
> 
> Rupert Giles Watcher's Diaries, 27 September, 2000

Harry Potter, Lone Traveler, also known as Marek Ilumian, was confused.

He had been working on helping one of his alternates with one of the crappy Halloweens that occurred during the Hogwarts years when suddenly he was in a different place.

Being a God, especially a God of Knowledge, even if that was one of his Minor aspects, was inordinately helpful in figuring out what the hell was going on.

Unlike Free Will, where he usually could see where important decisions would eventually lead with almost no effort (Free Will being his Major aspect) Knowledge took a little more effort.

Harry had been a little shocked to find that his own Divine aspect was one reason why infinite universes existed. Just his ability to divine outcomes based on different decisions sometimes split a universe into the two paths so that both could ultimately play out.

He had learned that after that whole ruckus about whether or not he should send that asteroid had split the dimension into both – he really had been divided over that and so the universe had been divided.

If he was uncertain about a decision, or those he helped we uncertain – pop! New Split!

It was a queer feeling to know he was one of the causes of the chaos that was the Multiverse. Not that he should be surprised, knowing that his powers were based on an almost perfect blend of Order and Chaos.

Thankfully, this didn't happen when concentrating on Knowledge. And so, knowing he needed knowledge, he concentrated.

Some things became immediately obvious to him: Sometimes a prank can be taken too far (he already knew that), and something created from Chaos Magic could affect even him (that was news).

He had tried to cancel the spell but his attempt had failed.

After a long moment of thought, Harry started smirking evilly. Certain worlds tended to piss him off – and most of the Buffy worlds were included in that disdain.

He really didn't like to see really manipulative higher powers running roughshod over the good guys more than the bad ones.

If he was stuck here, he might as well act as he decided was proper. Harry started casting.

* * *

Cordelia Chase was absolutely terrified and pissed off all at once.

What terrified her was that quite a number of the children who were out and about suddenly changed into the costumes they were wearing. And it was unfortunately true that children liked dressing up as werewolves and monsters and such things.

She was also pissed because she knew that this had something to do with Buffy Summers and her friends. She just knew that her wonderful costume was going to be _ruined_ before the night was over.

Suddenly, however, everything changed.

All of the little monsters disappeared. If anyone had been closer to the school, they would have seen that the area had been turned into a playground for adolescent creatures with far too much energy. Food (real food transfigured into whatever each creature liked) had been made available so that the little monsters wouldn't eat each other. And the worst creatures had been penned in by themselves.

All of the children who were changed into fairies were suddenly around a Christmas tree with little nectar pods for the fairies to drink.

Cordelia decided that she would find out exactly what the hell happened – tomorrow. Tonight she was just going to go home and get away from all the freakage.

All around Sunnydale, everyone who was made vulnerable were returned to their homes – Dru's vision of Buffy being vulnerable suddenly changed and she knew that there was no value in sending Spike out.

She had pouted about the sudden change in what she was seeing – someone was taking all the fun out of whatever was happening out there. She sulked for the rest of the night.

* * *

Feeling the red-head who had dressed as a ghost searching for him, Harry knew he had very little time … here … to operate. Therefore, he concentrated and _traveled_ …

* * *

Willow was in a panic, searching for Xander. Finally, she saw him down the street and rushed over. "Xander!"

The Traveler turned and waited for the girl to arrive. ""Xander, thank God I found you" yelled eh red-haired girl as she ran up to him. "Listen, there's something very weird going on, and we need to find Buffy!"

"I know. But Buffy is fine where she is: She's at home, even if she doesn't know who she is right now."

Willow looked at her long time friend with confusion. "How do you know?"

"I sent her there."

Willow was even more confused. "How?"

The Traveler smiled. "Because I'm not Xander – I'm just in his body. Hello. My name is Marek Ilumian, God of Free Will."

"God of … Free Will?" she asked confused.

The Traveler nodded even as he started leading her toward Buffy's Watcher. "He thought he was dressing as a 'cooler version of Harry Potter' but he ended up as me."

"How? And where are we going?"

"We're going to see Rupert Giles. And how is hard to explain. Do you understand the concept of the Multiverse?"

Harry and Willow talked as they made their way to find Giles.

"Willow? Xander? What's going on? And what happened to you, Willow?" Giles asked as he saw who was knocking.

Willow replied, "A whole lot of people turned into their costumes – and this isn't Xander. He's a God from another dimension who's wearing Xander right now."

Giles was confused. "Say that again?"

Harry decided to take over. "Long story short: Your old friend Ethan Rayne came into town, set up a costume shop, and then performed a ritual to Janus to change everyone who bought a costume from him into their costume. Xander lucked out and went as me – even if he thought his costume was someone else.

"I've put everyone in town in places where they can't hurt themselves, did a couple of other things, and then came to tell you. Once you go bust of the Statute of Janus which he used as a focus for the ritual things go back to normal, Xander will be free, and life goes on. Capiche?"

Giles looked at the Traveler for a long moment, and then rushed off to take care of the problem.

And, as happened in so many universes, life went back to normal, and life went on.

There were a few holdover effects. Everyone noticed that, over time, Xander seemed to pop up with vital information at the oddest times. And that he also suddenly really liked pie – almost as much as twinkies.

Some changes were more tangible though.

* * *

A few days later, Giles was looking through his books for information on a particular demon, he found something odd: A book he didn't remember having. And, after a couple of spells to check for danger, he tried to open it. And couldn't.

He read the cover to see if there were any clues. He realized that what he had thought was decoration on the spine was actually a flowing Latin script. He read the words, "_tantum per manibus autem quod electi_" and worked to translate them. It took only a moment for him: "only by hands that were chosen."

He huffed. Making a quick call, he found that the Council did have a book such as he described. It was considered useless as no one could open it. He was about to ask if they had ever asked a Slayer to open it, but _something_ caused him to act with more discretion.

Rupert had hung up, thinking furiously. He didn't know why, but continued discussion with the Council regarding this seemed _wrong_. Finally he bit the bullet and asked Buffy to come in early on a Saturday – she was not happy.

Feeling annoyed, she contacted Willow, who contacted Xander, and all of them arrived.

Rupert rolled his eyes upon seeing the group. "I just asked for you Buffy. Xander and Willow could have stayed home."

The two extras looked at Buffy – who didn't look apologetic at all. "If I had to come in, I'm going to spread the misery." The other two teens saw that Buffy was having fun at their expense and looked at each other. Revenge would come.

Finally Rupert had the attention of the teenagers. "Buffy, in reviewing my books I found one which I did not recall having."

Buffy was nervous. "What? Did it have some unknown prophecy about the end of the world?"

Giles replied, "I don't know."

The teens were confused. "You don't know?"

"I cannot open it."

"What do you mean you can't open it?" she asked.

"It's enchanted not to open for me. I believe only one person can open it."

Halfway between nervous and resigned, she asked, "Don't tell me: It has to be the Slayer."

Giles pulled the tome from the shelf and placed it on the table. He pointed out the text. "All that is written on the cover is a Latin phrase meaning: Only by hands that were chosen. I believe it means that only the Slayer can access it. But I don't know."

Buffy sighed. "Hand it over. I might as well get it over with."

Cautiously, Giles carefully placed the book in front of Buffy. She reached out and put her hand on it – and it flashed blue. She quickly snatched her hands back. "Woah!"

Alarmed, Xander asked, "Are you hurt?"

Buffy shook her head. "Feel the same as ever."

Willow was really curious, "Just push the cover up with your finger."

Buffy stood up and leaning closer, she did as Willow suggested. As the cover rose, Buffy and the others moved back in case something came out. Nothing did. They waited a long moment and finally Xander said, "False alarm?"

Giles nodded thoughtfully. "I believe so." He cautiously moved closer until he could read what was on the first page. "_Extra naturalis indicibus."_

Willow tried to puzzle it out. "Extranatural … informers?"

However, as soon as Xander heard the title he started thinking deeply. Finally he groaned. "I think it's safe."

Giles asked sharply, "Why?"

"Remember that Wizard-turned-God who possessed me on Halloween?"

Everyone nodded.

"Besides being the God of Free Will, he's a God of Knowledge. He left this for Buffy. As soon as I heard the name – _I knew_."

Buffy, trusting Xander, moved to start looking through the book. "I've never seen a book like this."

Giles came over and asked, "May I?"

Buffy waved him forward. Giles started looking through the pages, until he finally gasped. "What?" Buffy asked.

"I believe …" he paused, "I believe it is an index of every book which contains information on the Supernatural."

Willow cried, "Of course! _Extra naturalis indicibus. _Supernatural Indexes."

Giles looked through it some more and saw that there were different systems. Giles finally said, "There are several indexes. Each one is organized using a different method. Title, Subject, Demon Types, Descriptions. It gives the name of the book, author if known, and date of publishing." Giles flipped through the book some more.

Willow asked, "How many pages does it have?"

Giles shrugged. "It looks to have 400 or so."

Buffy, however, noticed something. "Wait."

Reaching out, she grabbed the majority of the pages and she began rushing through them by allowing her finger to control how fast they ran past. Those watching had wide eyes as it continued far beyond a few hundred pages. "There are more pages than should be possible!" Willow said.

Xander took his own turn looking at it. Suddenly he stopped and his eyes widened. "Look!" he cried with a strangled voice.

Everyone did and saw what Xander had seen. The text on one of the pages was moving down. In the new empty space, a new listing appeared _as they watched_.

Giles read the new entry and said, "I recognize that author! He's an expert on Demonology operating out of Oxford. The new entry is dated … now."

Buffy leaned over and watched, just as fascinated. She reached out and touched the new entry. Suddenly, the entry lit up. "Woah! What happened?"

Xander, who had been watching from a bit further said, "There was a flash at the back of the book too."

Buffy moved to the last separated section and everyone looked. The text that Buffy had pressed her finger against was now shown, in full, at the back of the Index.

"Let me try something!"

Buffy let him. Giles thought for a moment and then quickly rushed through several paged. Finding the entry he was looking for, he said, "Buffy? Tap that title please?"

Doing as asked, she tapped the title. The new one was suddenly lit with a small light. She moved to the section again, after checking the title, and said, "Wow. There it is – just what I selected!"

Giles saw back in shock. He had taken his glasses off and started cleaning them. "I don't believe you understand just what this means."

Buffy said, "I seem to have access to a magical book which will help find the information on the newest big bad much faster!"

Giles nodded. "Yes. But the title I asked you to select has one interesting characteristic."

"What is that?" Xander asked.

He looked at the three and said, "The last copy known to existence was lost over 400 years ago in a fire in London. It was so important a text it is still considered a tragedy even today. And now – with this book – we can access what it contained. Now do you understand?"


	2. Further Results

Through some pretty intensive trial and error, they found that while only Buffy could activate the book, once opened it could be used by anyone with her permission. And while being able to read texts that they didn't have was sometimes needed, it was better to use the original so as to leave the Index available for further use.

It was 5:00 on Saturday afternoon when Buffy returned home to eat dinner with her Mom and spend some time before going on patrol.

Her mother, instead of bustling around making dinner or some activity, she was sitting blankly at the kitchen table with a pile of papers in front of her.

Buffy was suddenly worried. "Mom? What's wrong?"

Joyce's eyes, formerly unfocused, looked over. "Buffy! When did you get home?"

"Just right now. What's going on?"

Joyce looked down at the papers in front of her and back at her daughter. "Do you know why I just got visited by people from Wells Fargo Bank?"

Confused, Buffy shrugged and said, "No." After a pause she asked, "And why on a Saturday?" Joyce noted that Buffy was truly unknowing.

"Come sit down."

Buffy did as asked and Joyce said, "Something is really strange. I had two men from Well's Fargo arrive telling me that they had vital information regarding a financial matter regarding you. I asked why you and they would only say that a very certain set of requirements – of which they were contractually bound not to explain – that you qualified for a Trust which was set up for girls with these requirements. Apparently you qualified back when we lived in Hemrey. We've been assigned a monthly stipend for your care, and you're to receive 20 percent of the stipend directly."

Buffy could only say, "What?"

"Because you should have been receiving Trust payments, I've been recompensed all medical costs since the time you qualified. You – and my extension me as your custodial guardian – now have the best medical insurance available paid for by the Trust. The mortgage for this house, because you live here, is now paid in full. We now have an accountant who will take care of our tax filings every year."

Buffy was floored. "Wow. How much do I get a month?"

"The monthly trust is $2000 – you get $400 of that. When you become an adult, you will get the amount directly and pay for your living expenses. I just don't know why you qualified for this …" she looked through the papers, "Sineya's Trust."

Buffy shrugged, lying. She didn't want to lie to her Mum, but she didn't want to explain the whole slayer thing either. She really needed to talk to Giles.

It took Xander a little longer, but he got his own surprise. After a night of patrolling where he had recovered a decent amount of cash from a couple of vampires that had been dusted, he went to add a portion to his Road Trip fund.

He was completely pissed off to find that the stack of money – a good $1400 the last time he looked – seemed ot have disappeared. He was about to go on a tirade about his deadbeat parents but suddenly notice the paper.

Picking it up, he read it. If anyone had been watching, they would have seen his eyes widening.

After school a couple of days later, he contacted the people that the note mentioned and found out that his little Road Trip fund was being actively invested – heavily – to increase the principle.

The people at the bank would also ensure that the accounting was done and taxes paid. His $1400 had already been brought up to $2000 – and was rapidly growing.

When he explained he really didn't want his parents finding out, they were fine with that.

After, Xander felt like he had options.

When Kendra arrived, and later Faith, the Scoobies ensured that they were informed about the Trust for slayers. For Kendra, who had a watcher and who pretty much did nothing else, it was nice but ultimately little-needed.

For Faith, who had nothing and whose watcher was dead, the regular money meant everything, especially when the bankers ensure she had a place to stay fully paid for.

Now the money she got from vampires she dusted was just a bonus but not vital just to eat regularly.

Another occurrence really cemented how much effort the God who had possessed Xander had expended on their behalf.

During their research on the Judge, Xander heard the phrase, "No weapons forged by man" and had a sudden package drop into his head. He stood up. "I have an idea – but I have to go investigate. Try to see if we can find something else – cause this is a longshot."

Xander quickly retreated, leaving the others wondering what the hell is going on.

Xander, however, made his way to the Sunnydale Arms Depot and, arriving at the gate, he asked to speak to the Base Commander. Two guards tried to run him off. Xander looked at the higher ranked one and gave a military code and then repeated his request.

Very soon, Xander was faced with a Major who was running the Depot – it wasn't a major installation.

"Major Gramm? My name is Xander and I work with the Slayer." Xander wrote a code down and then a phone number. "I need you to call this number and give this code, and tell the person that the Slayer needs to borrow a rocket launcher and a soldier to train her quickly and to supervise its use. The soldier can't use it because of Posse Comitatus. The person who will be using it is the Slayer."

Looking dubious, the Major did as asked. The code that Xander had given at the gate at least bought him that. The Major was soon standing at attention as he realized he was speaking directly to the Secretary of the Army.

After hearing the explanation, the Secretary explained that the matter was Top Secret and that he was ordered to assist in any possible manner as requested by the Slayer. The Secretary of the Army confirmed that doing so might just save the world.

After the current operation was over, the Base Commander was to report the results with a Code Word. Only those with clearance would review what occurred.

Very soon, Buffy Summers was confronted by the Specialist and the Rocket Launcher he would train her to use. It was explained to Buffy that the Specialist would carry it until Buffy specifically asked for it.

Buffy asked why the Military couldn't get involved and Posse Comitatus was explained. It wasn't that the Military was unaware of the demon problem – it was that they could legally do _nothing_ about it.

Buffy was given the Authorization codes to use as needed to call for equipment or "advisors" to assist any time there was an apocalypse level series of events or close to it.

When the Initiative came to her attention, she immediately knew something was off. She didn't question them directly but used her authorizations to contact the Secretary of Defense directly.

And so she was unsurprised when US National Guard troops were used to arrest and detain everyone involved with the operation. She was then requested as a consultant to help clear up the remains.

She found Spike had been given a chip to prevent him from harming humans. Amused, she ordered him released. Every other vamp was killed, as were several evil demons that had been captured.

A few peaceful demons were given treatment, a certain amount of hush money, and then let go.

Buffy learned a true disdain for "Black Ops" operations.

And when the First Evil needed to be contained, Buffy used her authorizations to ensure the town was evacuated fully. The US Army also assisted in transportation as needed for the potentials and newly-created Slayers. And when the town collapsed, the US Army had a field hospital all set up for the survivors who had helped save the world.

The re-organized Watchers Council had good relationships with various US government offices which made everything a bit smoother than it would otherwise have been.

And the Sineya Trust assisted in organizing and financing the reclamation and proper training of every Slayer that came through.

Buffy finally learned that the trust had somehow been set up _150 years_ before she was called, set to activate with her calling. Considering they were dealing with a God – it wasn't that hard to imagine.

But the Scoobies were ever grateful for the help.


End file.
